Dear 4B Families,
What an excellent first week of school with my wonderful new 4th grade students. It is clear to see that this will be an amazing year—with such a bright, kind, creative and fun group of students. Remember, if you have questions, suggestions, concerns, please contact me! We are partners in your child’s learning.
Permanently Change Your Student’s Zoom Name
The Archdiocese has mandated that students on Zoom platforms must not show their last name, therefore please follow the steps below. These steps should fix the last name permanently, instead of using rename every time they log in.
Magazine Drive
Our annual Magazine Drive will kick-off at the end of next week. Our theme this year is GATOR STRONG! Our community makes HRS strong and by working together we will have a successful fundraiser. Now more than ever fundraising is a key to our school’s success, please help us reach our goal. Renewal notices are arriving, so let your customers know that HRS will once again be selling magazines. New subscriptions and renewals count towards our goal. Last year we raised over $120,000. Exciting changes are on deck for this year’s Magazine Drive, stay tuned to next week’s eFC and emails for additional details
Schedule Change: It appears the online Masses will be shorter than we expected. We are asking that following Mass that the students return immediately to their homerooms rather than take a
break. We will take a break together (most likely at our regular 9:45-10:00 time. Thank you for your understanding.
Friday Afternoons During Remote Learning: This is just a reminder that Friday afternoons are self-guided for students. There will always be a music and PE video posted to Google Classroom (unless it’s a half day). In addition, there may be an additional short assignment. Additional assignments will be explained on the daily checklist and posted in Google Classroom. Any time leftover is meant for catch up work, if needed.
Spelling: Each student can access the weekly spelling words on Google Classroom. There will be a topic called: Spelling Words with a printable PDF of the words each week. This week’s spelling words are number words. This list will support our upcoming math lessons and objectives. We will be using Spelling City again this year. Each week the students will have required activities to complete to practice their spelling and vocabulary. If any activities are not completed during class work times, they may need to be completed as homework. On Fridays, all students will take a spelling test during school hours with a teacher monitoring. We are trusting that the students will not have any word lists in view while taking their Friday tests. All students logged in to Spelling City last Friday and completed a task, so they should be able to log in at home independently.
Reading: Last week the 4th grade teachers began administering an oral reading assessment to the students.. We began our regular reading routine starting with a wonderful tall tale in our anthology called “Stormalong”. We will focus on understanding characters and the figurative language concepts of hyperbole, simile and metaphor. Just a reminder, students are expected to always have a chapter book they are reading. This should be a physical book if possible to limit screen time. Just a reminder, students can check out books from the HR library. Here is the information that was included in the eFC:
Request Library Books Now!
Are you looking for some new books to read? Holy Rosary will be operating a remote check out system for our library to get books into the hands of our students as soon as possible. To check out books please go to the Library page.
Language Arts: Along with spelling the students will be completing a beginning of the year writing sample. They will also start to review cursive forms and review editing and grammar skills with D.O.L (Daily Oral Language) activities.
Math: Students will continue with baseline assessments this week. They will also dive into their My Math workbook, starting with Chapter One: Place Value. Get ready to read, write, and say numbers into the millions!
Xtra Math: Please sign your student up for Xtra Math before Monday. We will start using this program next
week. All instructions are in the Passwords Packet located in the blue folder. Tip: Make sure you click “Enroll” (not sign in).
Science: We will start science this week! Students will learn how to become scientists and engineers. Also, every student’s biggest mystery will be solved…What’s in the Science Mystery Box?
Social Studies: We will begin our year with a review the continents and oceans. All students will be expected to memorize a “Continent Poem” as
well as be able to name and locate the seven continents and five oceans. All students will be given details about test dates and expectations. The Continent Poem will be linked in Google Classroom
Religion: Our religion lessons this week will focus on our Steps to Respect lessons and social skills. When our class norms clearly support SAFE, RESPECTFUL & RESPONSIBLE behavior, unkind/bullying behaviors are less likely to happen. These lessons will help reinforce norms by connecting words and actions to class rules and expectations for social and learning behavior. Our first religion unit called In God’s Image. In this chapter we discuss human dignity and respect. We are all equal and worthy of respect and love.
This Friday, September 18th is a half day for students. There will be no afternoon PE or music videos or extra assignments. Enjoy the early weekend!
Thank you all for your patience, support and encouragement.
The students all did such a great job with their first week of remote learning. We know this is not easy for anyone, but we will continue to work hard to provide meaningful and motivating lessons for your amazing children!
Ms. Benson
